With each passing day after the floods, Srinagar’s downtown and uptown remain caught in the grip of the Jal Shakti Department’s negligence. Promises of safe drinking water ring hollow as taps stay dry or deliver contaminated supply. The crisis has deepened into routine, not relief.
Floods broke pipes and choked filters, yet officials drag their feet. Infrastructure lies in disrepair while residents stand in queues for tankers or depend on unsafe sources. Each announcement of quick restoration dissolves into silence. What remains are rising health risks and mounting frustration.
Audits show how schemes collapse under corruption and mismanagement. Funds meant for repairs and augmentation vanish in paperwork. The same bureaucrats tasked with delivering clean water dodge responsibility, dismiss public pleas, and leave entire pockets of Srinagar stranded.
The arrogance is most visible in the way officials treat protests. Families demanding clean water are brushed aside, and political leaders find their calls ignored. Accountability is buried under files while the public faces thirst.
Who governs Srinagar—the elected representatives or an unresponsive bureaucracy? Corruption continues to corrode as surely as the rust in neglected pipelines. Without urgent repair and transparency, the Jal Shakti Department is less a guardian of public health than a blockade against it.
Until clean water flows in downtown and uptown, the department’s hubris will remain a dam holding back justice, leaving the city parched and betrayed.
